08. Research
Candidate use emerging research on teaching, learning, and school improvement to enhance practices.
There are many types of research that I look at. I look at formal research to get an idea of what strategies and methods of teaching are out there and how they are working in the large scale. I try these strategies if they are relevant to what I want to accomplish in my classroom and if they work I try it again. I also get the opinion of other 7th grade math teachers about the research I find. I am sure that I drive them crazy with all of the questions I have that start with ‘what if….’ Formal research is a good and I get a lot of ideas from it but what about other research.
Then there is informal research where I go to my colleagues in school, district, or online and ask how ‘they’ would teach a concept. When I do this I get a plethora of answers back that are not only fun, exciting, and creative, but also have had all of the bugs worked out which is a plus when trying something new. Teachers with many years of experience have a lot of knowledge on classroom management and ways to teach a concept and they should be utilized.
I also have done my own research with my classes. In my thesis I have looked at what is being said in the math education forum about writing in math. I have taken this information and strategies that are being used and tested them out in my masters thesis. I think that it is fun to do research, but also a lot of work! Thesis
I have also just done book studies about best practices in the classroom. I read a lot of Marzano’s books. He seems to have a good grasp of the strategies that work and he also explains why they work. Also, his books present the information in a way that teachers would find useful in the classroom. I find anything he writes quick and easy to read and easy to apply to my classroom. On the side bar you will find a link to Marzano’s website and the books he has written. One example of using research in my classroom comes from Marzano. Marzano talks about using Blooms Taxonomy of Higher Learning in the classroom. I created a worksheet called a ‘blooming worksheet’ which has 6 questions or activities for the students to complete. Each of the 6 questions come from a different level of Blooms. It is also an easy assignment to differentiate allowing students to feel successful in the at the level of understanding that they are at. I feel that this has helped my students get away from the cookie cutter mold that is in a traditional classroom and start becoming the free thinkers they need in real life.
Keeping records of how students are doing on all of my assessments are key to making decisions about what I am going to teach next. If my students are not doing well then I am not going to go on to the next concept but I would reteach the information in a different way. To me this is a type of ongoing action research since I am researching to find various ways to teach, keeping tabs on progress, and drawing conclusions on what to do next. Research does not have to be a large formal project!
